As I mentioned last Wednesday, this is our last week of blogging here on Go Teen Writers until January. This website is a labor of love for all three of us, and we need time away to learn and be creative without simultaneously producing content. “Nothing in nature creates all the time.” says my friend, Tiffany.

Before we take our break, I wanted to answer a couple questions lingering in the mailbag. If you would like to ask a mailbag question, scroll to the bottom of our homepage and fill out the form.

NJ asked:

How do you take a one sentence story idea to a story synopsis?

It’s easier said than done, that’s for sure!

Often times when I’m coming up with my one sentence description of my story, I find that I have to write a paragraph or two to brainstorm the story, and then keep pruning back. If you come up with your sentence that way, you’re already on your way to writing a synopsis!

I like to do my brainstorming by hand, and usually in a conversational kind of tone. (e.g. Evalina’s family is Italian. Maybe they own a restaurant and Taichi’s family is the produce supplier?) This means that I usually have a decent amount of material to pull from when I’m trying to write my synopsis.

After I write my one sentence descriptor, I next focus on the story blurb or back-cover copy. Here are a couple posts that talk about that process:

From Story Spark To Story Blurb

How To Write Compelling Back-Cover Copy

After the blurb is done, you could either just try expanding it into a synopsis, or if that feels like too much of a jump, I would try writing a scene or two from the book. I often can’t write a good synopsis until I’ve written a couple chapters.

Here are a couple articles on writing a synopsis:

Organizing What I’ve Discovered And Writing A Working Synopsis: Shan’s Method

Writing A Synopsis: Jill’s Method

Writing A Synopsis, Steph’s Method

Editing A Synopsis, Part II of Steph’s Method

I hope that’s helpful, NJ!

Question number two! Emily asked:

I want one of the antagonists in my story to be redeemed. How do I write a good redemption arc?

Ooh, fun! I love a good redemption arc.

Start by thinking about how you personally change and evolve. Think of a specific time when you thought you knew the absolute truth of a situation, only to later change your mind. What brought about the change for you?

We never/rarely go from one extreme to another. Yet it’s not uncommon for someone who was a Republican to now be a Democrat (or vice versa), someone who was in National Honors Society in high school to be a college drop-out, or someone who was a shy kid become a public speaker as an adult. But none of those transformations happen overnight.

I would recommend building in at least three plot/thought pivots for your to-be-redeemed (TBR) antagonist before having the moment that shows they’ve been redeemed. You might want more if this is a POV character, but at least three. The thought process might look like this:

• Pivot #1: Something happens that causes the TBR antagonist to think, “Huh. I had never thought about this situation in that way before.”
• Pivot # 2: At this point in the story they think, “I think there’s a chance I’m wrong about this.”
• Pivot #3: Lastly, “Oh, look. Here’s clear evidence that I was wrong.”

After the TBR antagonist has decided they’re definitely wrong, you have a couple of great options. Depending on the type of story and redemption arc, you could try out one of these:

• The TBR antagonist realizes the error in their ways and immediately sets out to do the right thing.
• The TBR antagonist realizes the error in their ways, but don’t act at first. An opportunity is presented to them near the climax to do the right thing and they take it.
• The TBR antagonist realizes the error in their ways, and they try to do something to make up for the bad they’ve done, but their attempts are misguided. Maybe they end up doing what they think is right only to find it doesn’t work like they imagined/that these guys aren’t really the good guys/etc. After this error, they more fully understand what they need to do and choose right the next time.

There are lots of fun options for showing their redemption!

After the redemption is complete, I caution you against removing all natural consequences of their former life. For example, if the character killed people before being redeemed, then they still need to do their jail time.

Lastly, don’t have all the characters agree on how the redeemed antagonist should now be treated. Some characters should want to lavish grace on the character, and others should be like, “Are you people crazy? Remember what he was like at the beginning of the book?” Don’t get too tidy with that ending!

I hope those tips are helpful!